Method of enhancing email text with hyperlinked word pointing to targeted ad

ABSTRACT

A computer method and device for intercepting contracting client&#39;s sent electronic messages, scanning the message body content for key words, sending the key words to a remote central computer server which analyses the key words and enhances the message by attaching a relevant, contextual advertising tag line or image/banner/words/HTML/Flash, etc. to the electronic message, and transmitting the enhanced message to a receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/047,846, filed Mar. 13, 2008, and entitled “Method OfEnhancing Email Text With Hyperlinked Word Pointing To Targeted Ad”,which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/234,564,filed Sep. 4, 2002, and entitled “Method And Apparatus For AddingAdvertising Tag Lines To Electronic Messages”, now issued as U.S. Pat.No. 7,599,852, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119 of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/370,478, filed Apr. 5, 2002,and entitled “Method And Apparatus For Adding Advertising Tag Lines ToElectronic Messages”. The disclosures of the foregoing applications areincorporated in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field

This invention pertains to business methods and apparatuses related toelectronic messages or peer-to-peer communications (SMS messaging,Instant Messaging, email), message components of File Sharingapplications (Napster, Kaaza, Morpheus, Knutella, etc.). In particularit pertains to a computer device intercepting sent electronic messages,scanning the message body content for key words, sending the key wordsto a remote central computer server which analyses the key words andenhances the message by attaching a relevant, contextual advertising tagline or image/banner/words/HTML/Flash, etc. to the electronic message,and transmitting the enhanced message to the receiver.

2. State of the Art

A number of global network advertising systems are known which are usedto sell advertising attached to global network messaging applications.In the early 1990's Hotmail (hotmail.com) pioneered the concept ofintercepting personal electronic communications and appendingthird-party content in-side the message of the sender and intended forthe recipient to see. Many other messaging systems also followed suitand began appending additional third-party content to personalelectronic communications subscribing users. The appended third partycontent currently is and has usually been very general in nature orsomewhat targeted based on dated advertising survey data of userpreferences that may have been obtained during sign-up for the service.For example, the following companies attempt to append and/or combinethird-party advertising content into electronic messages such asHotmail, MSN (Microsoft Network), Yahoo!, Mailround, Junglemate, andmore specifically Lycos Mail as part of the Terra Lycos Network. TerraLycos is a global Internet company and leading provider of Internetaccess & content and provider of various Internet communicationtechnologies. Terra Lycos has developed an electronic communicationsmarketing system that appends various third-party advertisements,sweepstakes, etc. in emails that are transmitted by subscribers. Inparticular Lycos Mail is used to enhance personal email messages byappending hyperlinks (URL's), text advertisements and general HTML typecontent along side a sender's original message. This process gives theadvertiser a trusted introduction and personal recommendation from thesender to the recipient and is intended to entice the recipient to viewand/or click the third-party content.

Other products that are similar and common in the industry are policyand “disclaimer” company content that can be appended and/or prependedto all outgoing corporate email. One company in particular Red EarthSoftware provides such a product, as does Direct Communications SoftwareLimited based in the United Kingdom. Their product eXclaimer allowscompanies to: “Add legal disclaimers, boilerplates and signatures toyour emails. With this feature you can attach text and images to anyincoming or outgoing email, above, below or even to the sides of theoriginal email body. eXclaimer can be used simply to add standard legaldisclaimer text to the footer of every outgoing mail, or it can be usedto make professional-looking emails that conform to a particular style,with company logos and colors. eXclaimer includes the ability to use anumber of variable fields from the Active Directory. These fields behavein much the same way as mail merge fields in a word processor. When usedwith these fields, the text that eXclaimer attaches can be highlypersonalized automatically. By integrating with the Active Directory,this feature can be customized for every individual, or for whole groupsor departments.” (www.exclaimer2000.com).

Reiner, U.S. Pat. No. 20020029250 issued Mar. 7, 2002 entitled “Methodand apparatus for transmitting an electronic message on electronicletterhead” creates and distributes computer-enhanced artwork for use inelectronic messaging. Reiner is primarily “a process for transformingartwork, for example a logo, into a computer-readable artwork which canbe computer-enhanced, optimized and distributed to a client computer.”

Tuvey et al, GB Patent No. 2369218 published Feb. 14, 2002 discloses amethod of appending compatible graphic or text-based content intoelectronic messages after intercepting the message and analyzing themessaging system format. The methods employed specifically by Tuvey etal. are not message content specific but are rather generaladvertisements (with a focus on large intrusive banner ads) that aregenerated based on user preferences in very high-level generalcategories such as “books”, “Internet” or “shopping”. The currentsign-up process of Tuvey et al. requires the subscriber to “Select aminimum of 6 interests” stating that “It helps us to make sure you onlysee the stamps you're really interested in!” This process clearly limitsthe Tuvey et al. system to a minimum of six general interest categoriesand more importantly Tuvey et al. makes no attempt to determine thefocus of the actual message content or to derive keyword essence todeliver highly targeted, highly relevant, contextual third-partyadvertisements. The result is that, the Tuvey et al. system will notplace third-party content (i.e., ads) that are message content specificand cannot deliver “on-the-fly” contextual content exactly when theadvertiser and/or recipient needs it.

Tuvey et al. specifically states in patent No. GB2369218, “Addinginformation to an electronic communication or e-mail”: “[0040] (a) Embedadvertising material into emails; or to [0041] (b) Add referenceinformation to emails—for example an organization's mail server may becontrolled to add information to incoming mails about the sender of thereceived email where this information was available from a resource towhich the organization has access, or alternatively information about asender's particular area of expertise or information specificallytargeted at the recipient or the organization they work for may be addedto an organization's outgoing emails.” (original spelling included).

Both of these patented methods and processes fail to deliver contextual,relevant, message specific, message related content exactly when theadvertiser needs it to be seen and more importantly exactly when therecipient of the message needs to see the advertisement or otherrelevant third-party content as it relates to the topic of discussion(i.e., message body content) between the sender and receiving parties.The general enhancement claims made by the applicants are artwork, logosor general graphical banner ads that are wholly unrelated to anyspecific message content. Accordingly, there remains a need to provide amore efficient means for delivering relevant, contextual third-partycontent via personal electronic messages utilizing“Just-in-Time-Delivery” to put the content in front of the user whenit's needed and when it's relevant to the immediate situation of thesender and receiver.

The current methods in use in the industry render the advertisingunfocussed which results in lesser revenues from the sales of lower costrandom advertising rates. There thus remains a need for a methodadapting advertising directed to particular users of a global marketingnetwork.

In summary, the methods described in the above patent applications andmethods do not analyze the message content to append relevantadvertising messages. Instead, they append intrusive, blatant,predetermined dated third party advertising to the message. Nor do thesemethods provide a means to alter, modify, enhance or change the actualcontent or words of the message body text (as written by the sender) inany way. These applications therefore fail to harness the true potentialof personal electronic messaging as a means for a contextuallyintelligent delivery of third-party content. The current methods fail totap into what is the essence of the communication, extract that essence,and relate to it. There thus remains a need to employ a process wherebyone can deliver third-party advertising content based on an electronicmessaging user's current interests as reflected in the message contextitself to make the appended advertisements significantly more relevantto the current topic of conversation between the individuals doing themessage exchanging. The method and apparatus described below providessuch an invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is:

a. a process for enhancing personal, person-to-person electroniccommunication messages such as email, instant messaging, etc. betweentwo or more individuals via a worldwide-interconnected network, i.e.,the Internet, etc., local area networks, wide-area networks, wirelessnetworking, etc.

b. a process for directly affecting, altering, modifying and/or changingthe sender's message body content.

c. a process for altering specific words in sender's message content tobe “clickable” by the recipient via a hyperlink or URL usable on theInternet or other network.

Said messages will be enhanced, more intelligent, more intuitive, moreinformed after reaching the intended recipients. The present inventioncan deliver highly targeted, “on-the-fly” contextual third-party contentto instant messaging messages, email, SMS and nearly any other type ofmessaging system typically involving two or more individuals.

It comprises a method and system for attaching and transmittingadvertising tag lines to electronic email transmissions. Specifically,it comprises a service provider agreeing, using a computer network witha central server, to provide financial incentives to clientstransmitting emails who consent to attach advertising tag lines to theiremail transmissions. The service provider is compensated for theseservices by charging and collecting from advertisers fees for attachingadvertising tag lines to electronic emails. The service providerreceives, using a computer network, client consents to attachadvertising tag lines to their email transmissions through a globalinformation network. After the consents are acquired, the serviceprovider intercepts and scans consenting clients email transmissions(body content and subject) for key words and contextual essence by thecomputer networks' central server. Based on the key word and contextualanalysis, the service provider attaches tag line advertisements byactivating the central server to directly add tag lines relating to thekey words of the intercepted email. The central server then transmitsthe tagged emails to the clients' intended recipient. The serviceprovider then periodically compensates the participating client for eachemail transmission sent with a tag line attached.

In another variation of method and system for attaching and transmittingadvertising tag lines to electronic email transmissions, the serviceprovider may provide periodic financial compensation to recipients ofemails with advertising tag lines. The method and system for attachingand transmitting advertising tag lines to electronic email transmissionsmay thus compensate either or both of the client and recipient with aportion of the funds paid by advertisers to priority list their servicesin advertising tag lines attached to emails. It is contemplated thatadvertisers will be listed in ascending priority tag line listings basedon the amount paid by advertisers based on a bid system, which increasesdepending on hierarchy tag line listing in the electronic email.

In another preferred embodiment of the method and system for attachingand transmitting advertising tag lines to electronic emailtransmissions, the client is compensated for each email with a tag linesent by its recipient to a third party user. It is also possible forparticipating user's to receive multi-level compensation for eachdownline recipient of a transmitted email incorporating a tag line sentby each level of its recipients' third party senders.

Preferably, the method and system for attaching and transmittingadvertising tag lines to electronic email transmissions utilizes acentral server which does not retain the contents of the email after thetag line is attached to maintain message confidentiality. In actualoperation the processes of the technology are thus completelytransparent to the end users.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the interaction of thesender's personal message body content with third-party content (i.e.,ads) display and ranking from the advertiser perspective works asfollows:

1. Advertiser chooses to purchase ad inventory from the tag line serviceprovider.

2. Advertiser logs on to the tag line service provider web site andchooses one or more keywords that are associated with their particularadvertisement or content.

3. Advertiser selects a particular key word based on historical keyworddata provided by tag line service provider. For example, the advertiseris shown the number of times in the past week various particularkeywords may have been used in other message body content and thenchooses a keyword such as “Travel”.

4. Advertiser then makes a pay-per-click bid for use of the keyword such“Travel”. This is the amount that the advertiser is willing to pay whena recipient clicks on their particular ad in the email ad listings.

5. Advertiser is then guaranteed that anytime an email is sent throughthe OpenMX Server with the word “Travel” in the message body or subjectline of a participating user, their ad will be appended directly intothe email body and become apart of the email message.

6. Advertiser is further assured that if the keyword “Travel” is foundin the sender's personal message body text, the keyword will bedynamically altered into a clickable hyperlink that points directly tothe advertiser's ad content on the Internet.

7. Advertiser contracts that to get the in-message text Hotlink, theadvertiser has to have the top ranked or top bid ad out of all returnedad listings.

Preferably, the tag line advertisements are appended in a non-obtrusivemanner to the body of the text of the electronic message, such as at thebottom or on the side of the message.

The advantages to the participants are numerous. For example, from theparticipating sender's perspective, the sender receives compensation forevery tagline appended to the message body text. From the receiver'sperspective, the receiver receives advertising taglines of currentinterest to the subject to the message body text. In addition, thereceiver may receive a portion of the compensation for the appendedtagline. From the advertiser's perspective, the advertiser receives morefocused advertisements directed to current topics of discussion betweenthe sender and the receiver. The advertisement is carried by a trustedtransmitter and therefore is not screened by scanning software. Theadvertiser also receives tiered advertising listings directly related tothe size of its advertising budget. From the tag line service provider'sperspective, the tag line service provider receives compensation forevery appended tag line.

In another preferred embodiment, the tagline service provider, Sponster™of Salt Lake City, Utah, has a Web driven server associated with ananalysis software package known as “Contextus” to provide a processingengine as it relates to email is comprised of a PC with an Intelprocessor running Microsoft Windows NT Server software and IIS orInternet Information Server Web server software. IIS is configured withan Object based programming language called ASP/VBScript used to createthe Sponster™ Web application. The Web application also uses HTML,JavaScript and other relevant Internet based languages. Subscribingusers change their outgoing SMTP email setting to point to an OpenMXmail server (mail.openmx.com, etc.) and then all outbound email fromthat user will arrive at the OpenMX server where the processing occurs.

Once an email arrives at the server it is picked up by the Contextusprocessing engine that parses the email subject, body and all MIMEparts. All necessary message and attachment decoding is done (Base64,Quoted Printable, Uuencoded, BINHEX, etc.). All header data; Date,Subject, From, Priority, Recipients, etc. are parsed through. All partsincluding text, HTML, XML and other body parts, every attachment, andall other MIME parts of the message are parsed.

The Contextus processing engine gives particular attention to theSubject and Body text of the message. Every word of the Subject and Bodyare parsed and analysed and compared against key word and key phrasedata from the Sponster Media advertiser/third-party content database.

The Sponster Web application makes a request to or communicates with theStructured Query Language (SQL) Ad Database via Active Data Objects(ADO) or via an HTTP request that calls an ASP script that uses ADO tocommunicate with the SQL database.

Once the ads are pulled from the SQL database they sent back to theOpenMX Server for the Contextus processing engine to continue theprocess of appending the ad listings to the email message text file.Once appended, the contextually enhanced message is then sent to itsintended destination across the global information network. This is doneusing DNS and the SMTP protocol. Thus email sent to joe@somewhere.orgwill trigger a domain name search (DNS) lookup on somewhere.org. Thelookup will be first for a mail exchanger (MX) record, then a normaladdress (A) lookup if this fails. MX records contain a preference value(to chose among multiple MX records for a particular domain), and theDNS name of the host receiving mail for the domain.

The modified email then arrives at its intended destination. Underoptimal conditions the entire process should only take a few seconds.

The invention thus employs conventional global communication networkcomponents associated with Sponster™ software for using the same adaptedto hook up via a modem, network card, Bluetooth interface or any otherinterface to any known data transmission networks such as terrestrialand wireless phone networks, optical data transmission networks, localarea networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN) and all other known andunknown transmission networks and mediums to access a central computer,which provides analysis and selection of an appropriate email tags forthe intended recipient. It will communicate directly and autarkic(without means of a PC, Laptop, or personal organizer) directly with alocal or remote server or computer, which handles and keeps track of allindividual QueryStrings. This allows confidential access only byauthorized screening devices to a large continually updated database.

The device is also capable of receiving the necessary advertising datadirectly from the database stored in the remote or local server. Afterthe advertising database has been entered successfully, the Sponster™activated transmission network (terrestrial or wireless phone network)automatically downloads and tags the email with an appropriate currentadvertisement or website. This data update connection could also be doneby a dialup connection via a built-in or attached modem (analog, ISDN,etc.), via a connection to a local area network (LAN) or wide areanetwork (WAN) or other techniques. The modem connection may include theuse of mobile phones and the direct access to the Internet or intranetvia interactive computer screens.

The method and apparatus thus provides a more focused advertising systemwhere all parties are provided with compensation and current advertisinginformation to provide services or products directly related to currenttopics of interest.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a is an example of a plain-text un-enhanced electronic message.

FIG. 1 b is an example of an enhanced text electronic message of FIG. 1a.

FIG. 1 c is an example of a different enhanced text electronic messageof FIG. 1 a.

FIG. 2 is an example of a general network process flow of a typicalnetwork topology.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an extended distribution channelnetwork.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 a is an example of a plain-text un-enhanced electronic messagesent by an anonymous sender (who is also a tag line service providermember). The main elements of the plain-text of this personal emailinclude:

1. Message body content.

2. Keywords that will trigger an OpenMX Server to append specificcontextual third-party content, and

3. Empty, un-used white space to which tag line advertisements may beappended. The sender sends the email to a friend that includes words inthe message body text that will trigger specific third-party advertisercontent when processed by the OpenMX Server. The sender's electronicmessage passes through the OpenMX Server equipped with processingsoftware, such as that produced by Sponster™ of Salt Lake City, Utah.When processing starts the OpenMX Server retrieves all keywords for allthird-party content (ads) stored in the ad database. The OpenMX Serveranonymously parses sender's message body content and compares it againstall ad keywords previously retrieved from the ad database. In this caseOpenMX matched the words “Travel” and “Baby” from the message bodycontent and appends the advertiser purchased keywords “Travel” and“Baby” from the ad database as shown in FIG. 1 b. FIG. 1 b illustrates atypical enhanced tag line personal message email. When keywords triggerpaid third-party content (i.e., ads) the ads are ranked from top tobottom based on the payout amount to sender with the highest payout adbeing ranked first or at the top of the ad listing. The main elements ofthe FIG. 1 b enhanced personal email message are:

1. Message body content is directly affected.

2. Two different keywords triggered third-party content but only onekeyword became an in-message Hotlink. That Hotlink directly correspondsto the highest bid ad in the ad listing. This is a competition amongstall ad listings returned or derived via specific keywords found in thepersonal message body text.

3. Dynamically appended listing of all sponsors that relate to keyword,un-used empty white space is now utilized.

4. Payout amount to sender and related affiliates if recipient clicks adlisting. Each ad listing has a separate payout amount listed and willtrigger the payment amount specified when clicked. Also, the payoutrules and amounts will apply if the recipient clicks the Hotlink withinthe message body.

5. Sponster Media specific links. Clicking “join” will automaticallylink the recipient to the sender in the Sponster Media affiliateprogram.

Specifically, OpenMX retrieved all ads related to Travel and Baby andthen displayed all ads in the ad listing as part of the email body asshown in FIG. 1 c. The sender's personal message body content is thenfurther directly modified when the OpenMX Server dynamically changes theword “Travel” from the sender's personal message text into a clickablehyper linked URL. The word now has a subtle change in appearance, it isunderlined, may change in color, and the mouse cursor changes when ithovers over the word. When and if the newly hyper linked word is clickedit will take the recipient to the site of the advertiser with the toplisting in the ad results. It should be noted that even though matchingtwo keywords from the body content, the OpenMX Server did not alter orhyperlink the word “Baby”. This is because the advertiser purchase pricefor the keyword “Travel” has a higher click-through-payout than theadvertisement purchase price for the keyword “Baby”.

Comparing FIG. 1 c to FIG. 1 b, there is a different keyword in themessage body content. Both keywords “baby” and “travel” triggered paidcontextual content to be appended but only the highest bid ad got theHotlink in the sender's personal message body text. Ad results werepulled for “travel” and “baby” and in this particular email PricelineTravel has the highest payout to sender (in the event of aclick-through). Therefore Priceline gets the top spot in the ad listingsand Priceline gets the “travel” Hotlink in the sender's message body. InFIG. 1 b there were no “Travel” related advertisers with ad content inthe system, therefore none were pulled by the OpenMX server. In thatcase the highest bid ad for the keyword “baby” got the Hotlink and thetop spot in the ad listing.

This hierarchy listing process is a key aspect of the Sponster™ Mediasystem and invention and was included to motivate third-party contentproviders to bid up for the highest spot in the advertising taglistings. No other listings get an in-message Hotlink except for thehighest bidder in the advertising tag listing. Having a contextualHotlink directly in the message body text is far superior to having justan ad appended in the returned ad listings where the desire is togenerate direct click-throughs to the advertiser content.

FIG. 2 illustrates a brief overview of a typical general network processflow for the OpenMX Technology employing the invention. It discloses ageneral network topology in common use on the Internet and corporateIntranets. In the illustration, email is sent from an affiliatecomputer. The affiliate's email client is configured so that alloutgoing SMTP email is sent directly to the OpenMX Mail Server. TheOpenMX Server then receives the email searches for key words, and afterprocessing, parsing, etc., an intelligent ad request is made to the tagline service provider web server. The web server communicates with thedatabase and relevant/Contextual ads are pulled and appended by theOpenMX processor. A direct MX lookup is then performed on the recipientdomain to provide and transmit to the recipient an enhanced email.

FIG. 3 illustrates the method of the invention employed in an extendeddistribution channel network The Sponster™ Media affiliate program isshown as a multi-tier program that allows all members to earncommissions on down line tagged messages, not just on their own personalemails. These commissions can be earned on tagged messages on aplurality of down line transmissions sent by other affiliates withintheir affiliate network. As affiliate users get more and more affiliatesto join the system they get credit for the emails that pass throughthose distribution channels. This becomes an Extended DistributionChannel and can grow without limit as there are no restrictions on sizeor volume of tagged emails. For example, Affiliate A signs up with theSponster™ Media system, and during the course of using the system getsusers B, C and D to join also. User B sends about 8 emails per daythrough the OpenMX Servers. Any commissions paid to B via click-throughevents also trigger payments to User A. Likewise any commissions earnedby User C will trigger payments to User A. Similarly, commissions earnedby User D will trigger payments to User A.

The method and apparatus thus provides a cycle of benefits for allparticipants. Third party Dynamic Content Advertising Providers providecontextual and non-contextual commissionable and non-commissionablecontent for sender, enhancing message content. Message content can bedirectly acted upon via key word hyper linking or simply appended to viatemplate wrapping. Content Advertising Providers compete for adplacement based on a key word bidding process in the case of multipleand similar contextual content placements. Sender's route outgoingmessages through an OpenMX Server and by default their everydaycommunications provides a distribution channel that results in a trustedintroduction and tacit approval for the Content Advertising Provider,presently blocked by various messaging software. The sender'sdistribution channel is usually comprised of but not limited to friends,family, acquaintances, co-workers, etc.

The post OpenMX Sender transmission output includes enhanced relevantcontent to receiver messages, which are non-intrusive to the content.The enhanced content was determined by analyzing the message content inan anonymous, non-personally identifying way for specific key words thathave been deemed valuable by third party Content Advertising Providers.The key word content of the message is then contextually matched to theadvertising tag lines. If there is no contextual related content fromany Content Advertising Provider then a random content pull is done.

The receiver who may be unrelated to the tag line service provider butin most cases not unrelated to the sender, finds enhanced contentrelevant to the current email session, or discussion or for other variedreasons decides to view the added third-party content. The view event or“click-through” event results in a commission payment event where aportion of that commission is credited to the sender. The percentagepayout amount is determined by the tag line service provider's variabledepth compensation program that is part of the tag line serviceprovider's multi-tier affiliate program.

The Advertiser benefits from increased exposure, greater brandawareness, increased sales and other general and related benefits thatresult from a trusted recommendation or referral, which bypassesmessage-blocking (spam blocking) software. The receiver benefits withthe unexpected addition of relevant, contextual tag line advertisements,to the message topic of email discussion.

The sender receives a portion of the advertising compensation for eachdown line tagged message recipient. The end result is that we have asystem that can intelligently and contextually determine in-session,commissionable third-party content placement and ranking without ANYinvasion of privacy in any way and it's non-intrusive.

Although this specification has referred to the illustrated embodiments,it is not intended to restrict the scope of the appended claims. Theclaims themselves contain those features deemed essential to theinvention.

1. In a computing system having access to a third party content databaseand including a server system configured to receive and analyzeelectronic communications and route the electronic communications torecipient addresses, a method for enhancing electronic communicationswith contextually relevant third party content, comprising: the serversystem identifying a list of keywords determined to be relevant to thirdparty content stored in the third party content database; the serversystem receiving electronic communications from one or more senders thatare addressed to one or more recipient addresses, each electroniccommunication including text that is initially un-enhanced when receivedby the server system; the server system analyzing each electroniccommunication and determining one or more words that match and/orcontextually relate to any keywords determined to be relevant to thirdparty content; upon analyzing an electronic communication and findingone or more words that match and/or contextually relate to any keywordsdetermined to be relevant to third party content, the server systemidentifying initially un-enhanced text in the electronic communicationto be changed into a hyperlink that points to a website associated withthe third party content; the server system contextually enhancing theelectronic communication by changing the initially un-enhanced text inthe electronic communication into a hyperlink that points to a websiteassociated with the third party content; the server system routing theelectronic communication to one or more recipient addresses.
 2. A methodas recited in claim 1, wherein, as a result of changing the initiallyun-enhanced text into the hyperlink, a recipient of the electroniccommunication can access contextually relevant third party contentwithout moving a cursor outside a message body of the electroniccommunication.
 3. A method as recited in claim 1, each electroniccommunication comprising a subject line and message body text, thehyperlink that points to a website associated with the third partycontent being contained within at least one of the subject line ormessage body text.
 4. A method as recited in claim 3, further comprisingthe server system contextually enhancing the electronic communicationwith contextually relevant third party content so as to be displayed ona side of the message body text when the electronic communication islater accessed by a recipient.
 5. A method as recited in claim 4, thecontextually relevant third party content comprising at least oneadvertisement tag line that includes a hyperlink that points to awebsite of a third party content provider.
 6. A method as recited inclaim 5, the contextually relevant third party content comprising aplurality of different advertisements tag lines from different thirdparty content providers, the server system routing the contextuallyrelevant third party content so that the plurality of differentadvertisements tag lines are displayed vertically on the side of themessage body text when the electronic communication is later accessed bya recipient.
 7. A method as recited in claim 6, the server systemrouting the contextually relevant third party content so that thedifferent advertisements tag lines are displayed in a predeterminedorder, based on which of the different third party content providerspaid more money, when the electronic communication is later accessed bya recipient.
 8. A method as recited in claim 4, the server systemanalyzing each electronic communication and determining, independentlyof stored data relating to general interests of the one or more senders,whether the electronic communication contains one or more words thatmatch and/or contextually relate to any keywords determined to berelevant to third party content.
 9. A method as recited in claim 4, theserver system identifying the contextually relevant third party contentbased solely on the one or more words of each electronic communicationthat match and/or contextually relate to any keywords determined to berelevant to third party content without ever considering stored datarelating to general interests of both the senders and recipients of theelectronic communications.
 10. A method as recited in claim 3, theserver system changing at least one word in the message body text and/orsubject line of the electronic communication that is initiallyun-enhanced when received by the server system into a hyperlink thatpoints to a website corresponding to a third party content provider thatpaid more money than at least one other third party content provider.11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the initially un-enhancedtext comprises text received from the sender.
 12. A method as recited inclaim 1, the server being interposed between a sender computing systemand a recipient computing system, the server intercepting eachelectronic communication and performing contextual analysis to determineoverall message meaning and content before routing the electroniccommunication and any third party content to the one or more recipientaddresses.
 13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein compensation isprovided in response to the electronic communication being contextuallyenhanced.
 14. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the electroniccommunications comprise one or more of e-mail, Short Messaging Servicemessaging, or instant messaging.
 15. A method as recited in claim 1,wherein the server system does not retain the contents of the electroniccommunications once they are contextually enhanced and routed to the oneor more recipients.
 16. A method as recited in claim 1, upon analyzingan electronic communication and determining that the electroniccommunication does not contain any words that match and/or contextuallyrelate to any keywords determined to be relevant to third party content,the server system routing other content with the electroniccommunication to one or more specified recipient addresses.
 17. In acomputing system having access to a third party content database andincluding a server system configured to receive and analyze electroniccommunications and route the electronic communications to recipientaddresses, a method for enhancing electronic communications withcontextually relevant third party content, comprising: the server systemidentifying a list of keywords determined to be relevant to third partycontent stored in the third party content database; the server systemreceiving electronic communications from a plurality of differentsenders, at least some of which electronic communications specifydifferent recipient addresses and contain message bodies that differfrom those of other electronic communications received by the serversystem; the server system analyzing each of the electroniccommunications and determining, for each of the electroniccommunications, one or more words that match and/or contextually relateto any keywords determined to be relevant to third party content; uponanalyzing electronic communications containing differing message bodiesand finding one or more words that match and/or contextually relate todifferent keywords, the server system identifying, for each of theelectronic communications, contextually relevant third party contentstored in the third party content database that differs based on thedifferent message bodies contained in the electronic communications; andthe server system routing the electronic communications and anycontextually relevant third party content to the specified recipientaddresses so as to be displayed together when the electroniccommunications are later accessed by recipients, the third party contentrouted by the server system to some recipients differing from thirdparty content routed to other recipients based on differences in themessages bodies contained in respective electronic communications, theserver system linking at least a portion of the contextually relevantthird party content to the electronic communication by changing one ormore words in the electronic communication into a hyperlink that pointsto a website associated with contextually relevant third party contentwhen the electronic communication is displayed by a recipient.
 18. Amethod as recited in claim 17, wherein contextually enhancing theelectronic communication with the third party content further comprises:determining which one advertiser of a plurality of advertisers has paidmost for advertising; and changing at least one word in the message bodyauthored by the sender into a hyperlink which corresponds to a keywordselected by the one advertiser that is determined to have paid most foradvertising.
 19. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the serversystem identifies the contextually relevant third party content storedin the third party content database independently of stored datarelating to general interests of the sender.
 20. In a computing systemhaving access to an advertisement database and including a server systemconfigured to receive and analyze e-mail communications and route thee-mail communications to recipient addresses, a method for enhancinge-mail communications with contextually relevant advertisements,comprising: the server system identifying a list of keywords determinedto be relevant to advertising content of advertisers stored in theadvertisement database; the server system determining which of theadvertisers has paid more money and creating an advertisement hierarchy;the server system receiving e-mail communications from a plurality ofdifferent senders, at least some of which e-mail communications specifydifferent recipient addresses and contain subject lines and/or messagebodies that differ from those of other e-mail communications received bythe server system; the server system analyzing the subject lines and/ormessage bodies of the e-mail communications and determining one or morewords that match and/or contextually relate to any keywords determinedto be relevant to advertising content; upon analyzing the subject linesand/or message bodies of the e-mail communications and finding one ormore words that match and/or contextually relate to different keywords,the server system identifying, based on the advertisement hierarchy,contextually relevant advertising content from the advertisementdatabase that differs as between different e-mail communications basedon differences in respective subject lines and/or message bodiescontained in the e-mail communications; and the server system routingthe e-mail communications and any contextually relevant advertisingcontent to the specified recipient addresses so as to be displayedtogether when the e-mail communications are later accessed byrecipients, the advertising content routed by the server system to somerecipients differing from advertising content routed to other recipientsbased on differences in the subject lines and/or message bodies ofrespective e-mail communications, the server system linking at least aportion of the contextually relevant advertising content to the e-mailcommunications by changing one or more words in the e-mailcommunications into hyperlinks that point to websites associated withrespective contextually relevant advertising content when the e-mailcommunications are displayed by respective recipients.
 21. A method asrecited in claim 20, wherein routing the e-mail communications and anycontextually relevant advertising content comprises the server systemchanging initially un-enhanced text in the message body of an e-mailcommunication into a hyperlink that points to a website associated withthe contextually relevant advertising content.
 22. A method as recitedin claim 20, the server system further routing each e-mail communicationand contextually relevant advertising content so that one or more taglines are displayed outside the subject line and message body of thee-mail communication when later accessed by a recipient.
 23. A method asrecited in claim 22, wherein the one or more tag lines are displayed inan order determined by the advertisement hierarchy.